Thomas, Sandro,
Great stuff, thanks a lot.
> 3. The nuts and bolts. There's Government Data Done Well, there are the Five
> Stars -- but how does one actually climb that star ladder? What does it mean
> to put a particular government data set into a non-proprietary, perhaps
> RDF-based, format? What *is* that format in the first place? Which of
> several does one choose? When is a standard format the best thing to choose
> (and perhaps even worth waiting for), and when is it not worth the effort?
> How do we reconcile the need for standards with the rallying call of Raw Data
> Now?
Very valid questions. Some early input via:
http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/star-scheme-by-example/
and
http://lab.linkeddata.deri.ie/2010/lod-badges/
Looking forward to both the WG and IG!
Cheers,
Michael
--
Dr. Michael Hausenblas, Research Fellow
LiDRC - Linked Data Research Centre
DERI - Digital Enterprise Research Institute
NUIG - National University of Ireland, Galway
Ireland, Europe
Tel. +353 91 495730
http://linkeddata.deri.ie/http://sw-app.org/about.html
> From: Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 08:20:44 -0500
> To: W3C eGov IG <public-egov-ig@w3.org>
> Cc: Thomas Roessler <tlr@w3.org>
> Subject: eGov at W3C: Next Steps.
> Resent-From: W3C eGov IG <public-egov-ig@w3.org>
> Resent-Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:21:48 +0000
>
> Hello,
>
> I wanted to share some of the thoughts that we have within the W3C staff about
> where we think the eGov activity at W3C is heading, and what the next steps
> are. Before I go into that, I should probably also introduce myself: I lead
> the Technology & Society Domain at the W3C, which includes the eGov, Semantic
> Web, Security, Privacy, and Web Services activities.
>
> Back to the topic -- first of all, and most importantly: We're excited by the
> momentum and activity that we see with governments around the globe, and we're
> excited by the enormous amount of data that has been coming online over the
> last year. We think that W3C has a role to play in this environment. That
> role is to help you lead the charge on the public sector's use of the Web, and
> it is to help you bring more data online, better.
>
> We're also excited to see a lot of interest on senior levels of governments.
> In November, Tim Berners-Lee kicked off the data.gov conference together with
> Vivek Kundra, who called out the economic importance of open government data.
> In the EU, Commissioner Kroes is spearheading a review of the public sector
> information directive; the Commissioner's Digital Agenda calls for the
> availability of public sector information online as a key policy goal; and
> "Government Data, Done Well", is one of the themes that keep emerging from
> conversations within the broader community throughout the EU. At the same
> time, the Commission is holding meetings to figure out how to build a cross-EU
> public data catalogue.
>
>
> In this note, I want to do two things: First, outline a few of the high-level
> ideas of what we think the eGov activity can do. Second, talk about the
> concrete steps that will get us there over the next two or three months.
>
>
> So, what can the eGov activity do?
>
> 1. The policy level. For those of us who live and breathe the Web on a macro
> level, its value and transformative role for society, business, and
> administrations is so obvious that we at times forget that there are many
> decisions that need to be made to make government use of the Web happen.
> Those decisions need reasons, and those of us who work to support those
> decisions need to exchange their ideas.
>
> What are the economic success stories and models that motivate decisions about
> cost and licensing models for government data? What are the tradeoffs between
> data and services for free or at marginal cost? What are the results abroad
> that might motivate an agency to fund a government data program at a time of
> budget cuts and austerity policies? How can we turn unfunded mandates into
> funded, sustainable initiatives? A lot is to be learned from your experiences
> in answering those very questions.
>
>
> 2. Leading the charge toward a technical vision. For government data, Tim
> Berners-Lee has coined the "five star" model; one version of that model goes
> as follows:
>
> * on the web, open license
> ** machine-readable data
> *** non-proprietary formats
> **** RDF standards
> ***** Linked RDF
>
> That model aims to enable innovation based on integration across silos within
> and across governments, based on interoperability between the services and
> data put online.
>
> We're glad to see more governments get on board with this vision -- Norway and
> Italy are among the more recent additions of countries that start putting data
> online and getting to government data done well. But implementing this vision
> is a lot of work (as all of you know), and there is a lot to be shared and
> learned.
>
> Of course, government data is not the be all and end all of governments' use
> of the Web: Services to citizens are offered online. There are exciting
> ideas about decomposing government services into their fundamental components,
> bringing those components online, and looking for innovations to emerge on top
> of those. What's the technical vision for that? What do those ideas mean for
> the Web? How will citizens interact with their governments in ten, twenty
> years? We need to have those discussions now. We think the eGov activity is
> the place to have them. And we think you are the ones who will lead
> governments' innovations in this space.
>
>
> 3. The nuts and bolts. There's Government Data Done Well, there are the Five
> Stars -- but how does one actually climb that star ladder? What does it mean
> to put a particular government data set into a non-proprietary, perhaps
> RDF-based, format? What *is* that format in the first place? Which of
> several does one choose? When is a standard format the best thing to choose
> (and perhaps even worth waiting for), and when is it not worth the effort?
> How do we reconcile the need for standards with the rallying call of Raw Data
> Now?
>
> Answering those questions is, in many ways, closest to what we do every day at
> W3C: developing standards. We realize that there's a precarious balance in
> government data space, between doing it right and doing it at all. We also
> see that the same questions are asked in many countries. That's why we think
> that W3C is the right place to work out the answers to these questions.
>
>
>
> What does all of this mean for the future of the Activity, and how can you
> shape it?
>
>
> The nuts and bolts questions, we think, call for a Working Group. We'll call
> it the Government Linked Data Working group, and we'll focus on the detailed
> technical work that makes the five stars for government data possible. Sandro
> has drafted a charter for this group that's now available:
> http://www.w3.org/2011/govdata/charter
>
> We'd love to hear your thoughts on that draft till the year-end holiday break.
> We'll incorporate them, and we'll propose a Working Group around these work
> items to the W3C Advisory Committee (the representatives of the membership)
> first thing in 2011. We're excited about this plan, and we think it will make
> a real difference.
>
> This group will also be the place to take up a lot of the work that's
> currently going on in the GLD task force, including the dcat vocabulary and
> several other work items.
>
>
> We also think that the more general technical vision, the policy level, and
> the deployment questions call for a separate group. That will be the future
> role of this Interest Group: Serving as the place for the broader discussion
> about governments' use of Web technologies, and (for those who are interested
> in that sort of work) being a basis for education and outreach work around
> technical visions, policy concepts, best practices, and case studies.
>
> An initial draft for the IG charter is here:
> http://www.w3.org/egov/IG/charter-2011
>
> Your comments are more than welcome.
>
>
> We look forward to a great conversation about the future of eGov at W3C, and
> to your comments on where you want to take this activity. Remember, W3C is
> its members and participants!
>
> Regards,
> --
> Thomas Roessler, W3C <tlr@w3.org> (@roessler)
> Technology & Society Domain Leader
>
>
>
>
>
>
>